S.T.R.A.N.G.E.R

1.4 billion and growing merrily taking our daily life day in and day out without any big hassles, whatever our profession may be, right from an entrepreneur to a salaried person, we do have a peaceful life.  Yes, we do have our struggles, fights, targets, dissatisfactions and of course sacrifices, but all these limits to an individual or a family. A sacrifice done within the family is a rare occurrence in today’s world, and where is the possibility to talk about sacrifices done outside our doors or to strangers. . .

But we all know about a stranger who was doing, is doing and will do in the future for his family, friends and most importantly his STRANGERS. Guarding this beautiful country against all forms of threats is not a simple deed. When I mentioned threats; it includes extreme weather conditions, infiltrations and most deadly one – our corrupted politicians. And our STRANGER does this for 365 days/ 24 hours to ensure that his country, countrymen have a great peaceful life with their loved ones. But I am not sure whether we have these humanitarian qualities towards our friends, family and neighbors, sometimes I am scared the blissful purpose of our STRANGER may get defeated. . .

Today’s incident, March 27, 2012 killing of 13 CRPF jawans by naxals made me cry for the nth time, as this is an never ending story as of date, and our corrupted nethas still keep discussing on how to cover up this issue. Please………..take a bold stand and put an end to this cowardly act of naxals before we could lose more STRANGERS . . . it would take hours for my STRANGERS to finish off these naxal B*******, please give them the signal for cleanup.

My deepest condolences to the respective families who have given heroes to this nation knowing that their loss would be impeccable!!!

MERA BHARAT MAHAN – JAI HIND

Picture of the Day

PULL

IF LIFE PUSHES YOU DOWN
PULL YOUR FRONT WHEELS UP _-

March 23, 2012

Had a mind boggling meeting with an awesome person; Mr. Srinivasan (68), he shared his experiences which was just like reading a book. He had been in marketing for 22 years and had served top corporate, an avid traveler and automobile enthusiast. It was indeed a think tank session, the highlight was his presentation skills in conveying every instance/scenario. . . had a great time. 


THANK YOU SIR

Tune to Hockey

10.02.2012

10 years of married life. An awesome journey for the past 10 years and more to go. . . . a memorable day for both of us. Looking back, she has always been with me; during my ups and more importantly during my downs. She has been a vital strength and has supported me at every juncture. Oh yes! unlike many I do have have taken wrong moves or chose odd directions and have got locked blindly looking at the sky, but she has joined hands with me, saved me from situations. Whatever I am today, I dedicate it to her. She has encouraged me to dream, chase my passions and she has relaxed at the risks I have taken.

She has taken a lot of avatars, as a friend, mentor, adviser, and the best of all she has been a MOTHER to me. She is none other than my cutest, dearest wife LACHU

Pic of the day

DEC 28th, my mom's birthday. Miss her badly

Logo of the DAY

Quote

Born to GOLF  forced to WORK

Dabawalas

Got so excited after finishing the book "Dabawalas" by Shrinivas Pandit, can't wait to share my experiences from the book.

Though dabawalas are not new to me, as my native is Mumbai, I had also met couple of them and discussed their working style. The narration and the way the book is compiled,  needs a big appreciation to the author. 

Raghu and Ganga hold key positions at the Nutan dabawalas association, Mumbai comprising of 5000 employees with a turnover of Rs. 500 million. Their work culture and methodology puts most of the corporate best-practices or jargon to think/wonder. Their meticulous work starts daily by 8:30 and ends by 17:30 (picking up boxes of home cooked food and returning the empty boxes). During this cycle they are experts in time management, customer satisfaction, logistics, supply chain and best servicemen without even knowing the terms. God fearing people and they are good examples for "work is worship".

Their organizational chart is simple without chaos, they handle 200,000 tiffin boxes on a daily basis and their error rate is 1 in 16 million transactions (my eyes just popped out), am sure not even the best super computers could achieve this target. The association is 115 years old and are serving customers for 3 decades. No wonder they have been invited by premier institutions in India and across the globe. Sir Richard Branson had once traveled with dabawalas, Prince of Wales have invited them for his wedding.  

Dabawalas are an existing and proven model for millions of start-up companies and existing ones who get stuck at some point and needs to be bailed out. Their importance to intricacies, trivial issues, and values keep them growing stronger and stronger. . . 

Once again my heartiest thanks to the author, and of course to Raghu and Ganga. . .

PIC of the DAY

Mullaiperiyar

Atrocities over the TN_Kerala border. . . fellow citizens please refrain from violence, we have always remained good neighbors and would certainly remain the same in the future. . . all these confusions are created by a bunch of miscreants for an hidden motive. Please sit back and analyze before picking a weapon. Both the states have always maintained peace, decorum and are rich in culture; lets be proud of those and build them as we did in the past.

Please please please lets stop this and join hands for a peaceful scenario.

JAI HIND

Welcome T.I.G.E.R

Hats off to Tiger Woods for his win at the Chevron Challenge. . . . its been almost 2 years we all have seen the master lifting a trophy. Am so glad to see him in action. Way to go MASTER

Pics of the Day

Addicted

My dad's gift of a Golf Set for my birthday woke up the little tiger in me. Got addicted to this game to the best levels. Its been 7 months I have started playing, this game has changed my persona to a large extent. Dad, this is one of the best gift I have ever received.

I sleep golf, eat golf, drink golf, wish I could PLAY golf :)

Anna Centenary Library

My recent visit to the Anna Centenary Library (ACT) was a memorable one. I was awestruck with this architectural wonder, perfect planning on the design and arrangement.

I would say ATC is an ocean of books as the term "library" would limit its scope. Got to feel rare of the rarest books in the world, huge collection of books spread across various verticals. The display needs a big appreciation as one could never get confused.

I got to pick titles I have not heard of so far; British Colonies, Afro-American culture, Oman civilization, Emirates formation and the list goes on.....it took me 1 hour to pick a book and be seated. Absolute silence is maintained and the staff are kind enough to assist (incl. the security).

I guess ATC is the only place one could carry his/hers own books and spend quality time without any disturbances. Not forget to mention the "Braille" section, am sure its first of its kind to host a wide section. ATC opens at 8:30 and closes by 20:00, one could get sunk.

And the best part, all the facilities are offered free of cost, which is unimaginable. My appreciation and thanks to the team behind this marvelous creation, and my humble request to the team behind to re-locate. . . please leave it as it is.

Habit

Being in the sales and marketing vertical for almost 15 years, I had always believed in the concept of cultivating a habit among customers, it could be a product or concept the mantra has always been the same "Cultivate the habit" (CTB).

10 years back it was Greek and Latin, considered as a luxury product, could be seen only in a foreign hand, one needs to shell out a sizable money for usage and today I use it for an extra packet of milk or an extra water can for my house. . . yes! I am referring to a "Mobile Phone". aam aadhmi cannot survive without this little yet monstrous gadget.

The same mantra stretches to automobiles, especially four-wheelers, today's market offering is "bring in a two-wheeler and drive home a four-wheeler", was surprised reading this hoarding and smirked to myself on the fictitious growth.

So far I always considered Mahatma as the best marketing person the world has ever seen. But to my surprise our good old politicians have proved me wrong and also have overtaken Mahatma as the best marketing experts. Of course they have taken the mantra CTB and have been using to the best levels possible. Having mentioned about CTB, not to forget the mantra CTB is directly linked to "acceptance".

Be it the price hike (to the reasons best known), the poorest infrastructure and the famous 1 hour power shutdown (Chennai city). . . our bureaucrats have cultivated the habit in the common man efficiently and have taken his/her acceptance. I came across few fellow citizens discussing helplessly - roads have become worst, that is because of the heavy downpour and the GOVT needs time to repair them. Power shutdown? what can the GOVT do if our neighboring states are refusing to share and the price hike? Oh come on man; the exchequer is EMPTY.

But why does CTB mantra implies only to the aam aadhmi and not to the politicos? never seen a power shut down in their respective houses, nor are they affected by the price hike and as always they only commute on the best roads available.

As a common man I hope and wish the CTB mantra is used in a positive way for the aam aadhmi. . .

Chepauk - MCC

Stepped inside Chepauk (Madras Cricket Club) after 10 years. Today was the IPL T20 match between CSK and RR. What a performance from the CSK team, individual credit and applause goes to M. Vijay for his awesome knock and classy bowling from Bolinger.

It was indeed a treat for me, as I happen to experience a live match with many records set and previous records broken; I was told that the total scored by CSK was the highest in IPL history and aggregate score was again the highest IPL tournament. Most number of sixes, individual scores, the list keeps on going. . . .

Nothing like watching a live match with million of people around you with their high decibels. Each and everyone calling aloud for their favorite sport stars, whenever they are in action on the ground. Topping it all was my guruji Sivamani with his touches on the drums making the entire stadium roar. . . .

The renovation work needs applause; chepauk already had its beauty and especially after the work it looks even more elegant and awesome. The entire civil team needs a pat in their back for the meticulous work. To sum it up the whole stadium was like an island standing bold amidst the busiest place of Chennai and proving the level of the second best ground in the world.

Nostalgic

It was the time for reunion of the school and college friends at Bangalore. The occasion was my good friend Appu’s (Arvind) marriage (he was the last one to tie the knot) in our gang.

It all started off with a good drive from Chennai to Bangalore with another friend Subbu. Enjoyed the 4.5 hours drive and after checking in couple of chilled bottles of barley water (what more you expect after a good drive) was served. By late evening almost al the friends checked in from other parts of the globe and we were gearing up for the wedding reception. Had a great time at the reception and followed by the lengthy daru session kicking off at one of the rooms.

The session had lots of emotions shared upon. Happiness, sorrow, difference of opinions, minor quarrels, neglects and sentiments. End of the day we were all the same old little school kids or college dudes painted us as corporate honchos/managers/businessmen sitting under one roof happily tasting the same drink we had 10-15 years back. We covered almost all the topics ranging a span of 15 years and shrinking it to 5 hours.

Apart from pulling each other’s child hood stuffs, we thanked all our teachers/lecturers/principals and mentors for what we are today and without their support we wouldn’t have reached this milestone. Finally the time came to depart with lots of hugs and little of tears, exchanged/updated mail ids & mobile no’s. . . I am sure this trip would remain fresh in everyone’s mind and heart, not forgetting to thank Appu for bringing us together. :)

Happy married life – Arvind and Shwetha!!!